Pinball Lizard

The Pinball Lizard, designed by Ed Cebula with artwork by Jim Sullivan, was manufactured by Game Plan, Incorporated of Illinois in June 1980. A four-player solid-state game running on the Game Plan MPU-2 board, it carries a fantasy theme and had an approximate production run of 1,400 units under model number 210.

The playfield features two flippers, two pop bumpers, a four-bank of drop targets, a three-bank of drop targets, a kick-out hole, and a spinning target. Its most charming quirk is aural: hitting a drop target produces two short, high-pitched electronic sounds, presumably the lizard's yelp or cry, a playful touch of personality in the game's sound package.

As a product of Game Plan, one of the smaller manufacturers competing against the industry giants during the solid-state boom, the Pinball Lizard is an interesting example of early-1980s pinball from outside the big Chicago houses, and its modest production run makes it a relatively uncommon find today.